Wound Center Offers New Casting Treatment

Dr. Charles Halbeck, D.O. and registered nurse Anessa Emmons, director of Saint Anthony’s Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine, demonstrate with staff registered nurse Val Heflin how total contact casts are applied to help in the healing of diabetic foot wounds. Proper padding is crucial in insuring that additional ulcers do not develop while the initial wound is healing.

Saint Anthony’s Wound Center: Healing on Contact

Individuals with diabetes who have non-healing foot wounds are now wearing casts, as one of the newest methods for wound healing at Saint Anthony’s Center for Wound Healing & Hyperbaric Medicine, located on the campus of Saint Clare’s Hospital.

“The total contact cast has proven particularly effective for diabetic foot ulcers,” said Anessa Emmons, RN, Director of the wound
center. “About 60 percent of foot ulcers are diabetes-related.

“It’s a great modality,” Emmons said. “It helps to relieve the pressure from the specific ulcer and allows it to heal.”

The primary reasons that most diabetic foot ulcers do not heal are that the patient isn’t able to stay off of his or her feet. “And it’s often difficult for patients to wear offloading shoes – special shoes designed to keep weight off of a wound,” said Emmons. The total contact cast keeps the pressure off even as they carry on their normal routine.

“They can do most everything they want to do,” Emmons said. “A cast is worn for eight to 10 weeks, with the cast itself changed weekly.”

Charles Halbeck, D.O., said that not every patient is suited for the contact cast mode of treatment. “But it is definitely the treatment of choice and works superbly in the type of plantar wound -- in the ball of the foot -- that is common with diabetics.”   With the cast changed weekly, it is also encouraging when doctors and the patients can see the steady progression of healing.

Halbeck said it’s very important to get help for wounds that are not healing. Sometimes diabetic patients or those with neuropathy may not realize how a wound has progressed because their extremities are often numb, so there’s no pain to let them know something is wrong.

“If the wound is not treated, there’s always a risk of infection and it could even result in the loss of a foot especially if the infection gets into the bone,” Halbeck said. “The worst case scenario is that a person can even die from such a wound.” 

One of the first patients to receive the contact cast in the wound center was Lamont Durante, who had his wound for three years prior to treatment. The method was very effective for him.

“The staff at the wound center took great care of me and the cast did a fantastic job in a very short time,” said Durante, 52, formerly of East Alton, now living in Georgia. “The results were incredible, especially compared to all the other treatments I had tried.”

“It’s a great technique for a diabetic,” Halbeck said. “We usually try to work within the patients’ lifestyles to help them get better with as little downtime as possible.”

Generally, patients who are referred to the center have acute wounds that are severe or recent, or chronic wounds that haven’t healed after four weeks.

The center uses various therapies – like debridement, infection management, compression therapy and nutritional support -- to treat a number of other non-healing wounds. Example of non-healing wounds include post-radiation tissue injury, crush injuries, venous stasis (related to loss of blood flow) or arterial insufficiency ulcers, wounds caused by poor circulation or trauma, compromised grafts and flaps, burns, surgical wounds, gangrene or soft issue infections.

In addition to Halbeck, Ray Rains, M.D., is also on staff at the wound center, along with six registered nurses and two hyperbaric technicians.

Whatever therapy is used, each patient is given an individualized care program, based on several factors, while adhering to clinical practice guidelines.

“Each patient may have other problems or issues that can all play into it,” Emmons said.   Sometimes hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be used for certain kinds of wounds to supplement other treatment methods. This type of therapy usually involves daily treatments at the center for several weeks.

For more information or to schedule an appointment at the Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine, call 463-5300.

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